Leadership 101: Emotions + Business Decisions = Trouble

What is your responsibility as a leader, do you know?

I will address that in a moment, but let’s first talk briefly about what they are NOT:

*** You are NOT responsible for your team’s production, or lack thereof.

*** You are NOT responsible for your team’s event attendance, or lack thereof.

*** You are NOT responsible for your team’s conference call attendance, or lack thereof.

*** You are NOT responsible for your team being on auto shipment, or lack thereof.

Etc, etc, etc.

I don’t know about you, but personally, I didn’t get that at first. I really struggled emotionally and mentally because I was carrying the weight of my entire team on my shoulders. And that was a heavy load to carry!

I was so set on my team members becoming successful and reaching their goals…every single one of them.

In fact I wanted it even more for them than they wanted it for themselves!

So when they weren’t getting results — because they weren’t taking action — or not getting results as quickly as they (or I) would like them to, it really drained me emotionally.

I had obviously made a commission on my new distributors when they came into the business and so I felt that I “owed” it to them, that I owed them a return on their investment.

I felt that I owed them success.

But fortunately, with time, I learned that this is no way to run a business.

I learned that you can’t run a business on emotions.

It was a hard lesson to learn. But when it finally sank in, boy did I feel relieved!

I understood that it really wasn’t up to me whether my downline was going to be successful or not. That if they didn’t plug into the training it wasn’t my responsibility. That if they decided not to follow my lead, there was nothing I could do about it. And that if they quit, it wasn’t my fault.

See, as a leader you can motivate, you can cajole, you can push — you can analyze, you can sweet-talk…

You can do a lot of things to try to get your reps to take action, but you know what?

Ultimately, it’s not up to you. Fact is you can do all of the above and still find that it didn’t make ANY difference…. (I’m speaking from painfully gained personal experience here.)

And when that happens, you can blame yourself and put nonsensical thoughts into your head like, “I must not be a good leader or my team would be getting results.”

Not good…

Because it’s NOT your responsibility to make things happen for your team members!

They are responsible for their own success.

And your responsibility…?

To lead by example.

That’s it.

Because the only person you can have full control over is — of course — YOURSELF.

You can’t bend wills. You can’t twist arms. You can’t make people stay faithful to their word. You can’t breathe life back into dying dreams. You’re only human!

And keep this in mind, too –

There are always going to be people who quit. It’s just the way it is with anything in life, really… Not every single person is going to follow through with every single task they set out to do…

So simply do your part…which is to lead by example. And let your non-productive distributors worry about themselves. They probably aren’t even all that “worried” – or they would be coming to you, asking for your advice…don’t you think?

Be there for them when/if they come. Other than that there’s really only one thing you need to be concerned about:

Being the leader.

Do that, and the RIGHT people will follow…

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Lena Bjorna is an actress turned professional marketer who used the concept of “GPT” to go from MLM failure to profitable Internet business owner in a matter of months. To see if Lena currently has any openings on her team, go to: MyInsiderReport.com

Marketing, Mindset, And That Darn “Money Question”

“So….how much money are YOU making?”

Ouch.

Have you ever gotten that question from a prospect and been left tongue-tied?

If you aren’t making a significant income yet, how do you tackle that one?

Well, there are obviously several ways that you can handle the question, but let me just discuss a couple for now. As you will see, at their core they both convey the same message…

Response #1:

“Why is that relevant? Your income is not going to depend on how much I am making. You can make more than me, less, or nothing at all.

The question you should ask is ‘do you have a burning desire to be successful and are you willing to do whatever it takes?’ If your answer is yes, then you WILL succeed, independent of me, my company or anyone else. So, Joe/Mary…do you have that desire?” (Smile.)

Response #2:

“Funny you ask that… See, for me this business is about so much more than just making truck loads of money. It’s about freedom of time…it’s about being in charge of your own life, calling the shots…and it’s about helping others.

Besides wanting to generate a large income, what are some of your reasons, Joe/Mary, to get started in this business?” (Smile.)

Do you see what I’m doing with each of these replies? I’m turning it around, giving it “back” to them…asking them a question.

A much more profound question. A question that disarms them. One that puts them on the spot.

Remember, you are interviewing your prospect, not the other way around.

You want to be asking the questions because in any conversation it is the person asking the questions who holds the power.

Even when you reach the point where you are generating a substantial income, you don’t want to get side tracked by attempting to “prove” to your prospect how successful you are by reporting your figures.

You shouldn’t have to prove anything…

Whenever you get a question about your earnings it is because your prospect lacks trust in your leadership skills and wants to see tangible “proof” that you are going to give them value. They erronously think they can determine this by the size of your bank account.

If you correctly position yourself as a leader and an expert in your field, build a relationship with your prospective customer/rep and truly provide them with the answers they are looking for, you should not be getting this question.

And the truth is that how much you are or aren’t making really is irrelevant to your prospective rep’s success. In our industry (as in any other) you find both high income earners who don’t support their team as they should, and committed, hard-working individuals who pour themselves into their team members — even though they’re not (yet) making five or six figures..

So if you do get the “money question” still, don’t try to answer. Simply turn it around by asking them a much more intelligent question.

Make them think.

Your financial future does not depend on whether or not a particular person signs up with you.

And that’s the mindset with which you handle “the money question”.

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Lena Bjorna is an actress turned professional marketer who used the concept of “GPT” to go from MLM failure to profitable Internet business owner in a matter of months. To see if Lena currently has any openings on her team, go to: MyInsiderReport.com

Mike Dillard Spills the Beans to Me In Vegas

At a company conference in Las Vegas recently I had the great pleasure of interviewing my own mentor Mike Dillard, self-made millionaire and author of the just-launched, highly anticipated marketing course, Black Belt Recruiting. (If you haven’t seen the interview yet you can watch it HERE. )

It was a brief conversation but a valuable one. In particular one point that Mike made really stuck with me. He talked about how you won’t need to build a team of hundreds of people if you will just learn how to recruit the right people.

(At this event, of the eight-or-so people being recognized as the company’s top producers, half were Mike’s people…which proved his point, one can safely say.)

Wow.

Have you ever thought about your business that way? “If I just make sure to recruit the right people, then a handful will be enough…” ?

Or are you laboring to build an organization of hundreds, maybe even thousands of distributors, in the hope that one day — hopefully sooner than later – all those Mickey Mouse checks will finally add up…?

I’ll be quick to raise my hand here: been there, done that… (Had I not found Mike, I would probably still be there, doing that.)

After picking up these pearls of wisdom from Mike, I have become more focused than ever before on sponsoring only the “right” people into my marketing business.

This objective now colors my choice of advertising methods (I use almost exclusively social media web 2.0, targeting primarily those who already have some experience with network marketing), the wording I use on my websites and in my auto responders (“if you are looking for a ‘lottery ticket’, keep looking…”), and who I choose to speak to on the phone (only those who have first taken the time to go through all the on-line resources I have provided them with).

And you know what the result is? I now find myself attracting the kind of people into my business that I actually want to work with! Positive people, serious entrepreneurs, self-starters, people who want to make a difference with their lives.

A completely different caliber of people…

I’m also finding that the individuals I come in contact with often have the same interests, values and goals as me — even when they happen to live on the other side of the world!

When I get them on the phone there’s nothing awkward about the conversation – we act like friends who already know each other. And in a way we do — we do know each other…we have already connected…we’re already on the same page.

Needless to say, my business has become a whole lot more fun as a result of changing my recruiting tactics. FUN as in no more pitching, no more convincing, no more baby-sitting, no more answering a million objections.

Just talking…connecting…relating…

With the right people.

I think the lesson to take away here is this: when prospecting you really do get what you ask for. So –

(Mike Dillard agrees with this, I know)  — just as long as you raise the bar on yourself, you can and should raise the bar on your prospects!

Become the leader that attracts other leaders. That’s when you start seeing real results. That’s when building your business suddenly doesn’t feel like “work” anymore.

That’s when you finally start to enjoy the ride…

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Lena Bjorna is an actress-turned professional marketer who used the concept of “GPT” to go from MLM failure to profitable Internet business owner in a matter of months. To learn how GPT can work for you too, go to: MyInsiderReport.com

How to Close the Sale (You May Be Suprised)

- What do Ellie Drake, Jim Rohn and Anthony Robbins have in common (besides being filthy rich)?

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Okay…

First, a warning. If you’re expecting me to reveal to you some ‘power phrase’ here that is going to magically  close the sale for you, you will be disappointed.

See, I actually intend to dig a little deeper than that.

Now of course there are ways that you can influence, even manipulate, your prospect into purchasing your product or joining your opportunity, however, in my book that is short-sighted and immature.

And that is not how the pros do it.

That is not how the successful network marketers close the sale.

Which is why this is not a strategy I want to discuss in this post…

If you’ve ever been to an industry event and attended a lecture given by a multiple six- or seven figure earner — be it Ellie Drake, Jim Rohn, Mark Victor Hansen, Jeffery Combs, Susan Sly, Anthony Robbins, or anyone else — you’ll notice that they all follow the same strategy:

They pack their speeches with content as they freely share their hard-earned knowledge, leaving you mind-blown and hungry for more.

Ellie Drake doesn’t enter the stage and immediately start pitching her CD-series or her book…

Jim Rohn doesn’t take the microphone and right away start promoting his conference series…

Jeffery Combs doesn’t get up there and begin pitching his $1000 weekend workshop as soon as he is introduced.

Nope.

See, these people know something very important — which is why they are so successful.

They know that VALUE comes first.

They know that if they want to sell a book or a coaching session, they first have to make their prospective customer see that the product is not only worth its price, but worth its price many, many times over.

They don’t do this by talking about the product but by sharing their tremendous wealth of success-creating knowledge with you so that you’ll want more of it — more of the same.

And then, what do they do? Well, at the very end of their talk they quickly and matter-of-factly introduce their product. No hype or hard-sell.

It is not needed.

Also, they don’t just offer you the products at regular retail price — no, they offer you such an incredible discount that their proposal becomes irresistible.

They OVER-deliver.

They always, always over-deliver…

You think they get a lot of orders afterwards from the conference attendees? I think so…

And so, of course, they still make a nice profit. They walk away happy…you walk away (with your CD set) happy.

That’s how the pros close the sale.

The successful network marketers also know something else — they know this is the way to obtain life-time customers…which means referrals (lots of them)…which means even more life-time customers. And life-time customers, of course, mean tremendous customer value.

If you want to be successful and make a lot of money in this industry, learn from the people that already are where you would like to be.

Stop trying to prove to people why they should join your opportunity. Stop conjuring up “magical” words you hope will close the sale for you.

The pros never do that. That’s amateur hour.

If that’s how you are “marketing” your business, you’ve got it all backwards.

Learn from the successful people:

VALUE FIRST. Lots and lots of it.

Then the sale will close itself…

Promise.

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Lena Bjorna is an actress-turned professional marketer who used the concept of “GPT” to go from MLM failure to profitable Internet business owner in a matter of months. To learn how GPT can work for you too, go to: MyInsiderReport.com

How (Not) to Sponsor People Into Your Network Marketing Business…

I always try to fill my emails with good, useful information. In fact I make it a point — whether it be in my auto responders, blogs, forum posts or wherever — to ty to give my readers something that stimulates their thinking and encourages action on their part.

Something of value.

Therefore it always amazed me whenever someone replies to one of my emails by pitching me their opportunity, trying to get me to jump ships.

Now mind you, these are individuals who have visited my websites and opted in to my list, so they know (or maybe I should say “should know”?) that I am:

1) Very happy with my company, its products and its marketing system,
2) That I’m successful at what I do,
3) That I like pitching about as much as I like lice in my hair.

Still, they try to get me to leave my company and join theirs by replying  to my email with nothing more than a hurried pitch and a link to their website.

If there ever was a turn-off, this one is it….

You see, right away I know two very specific things about a person who approaches me this way:

1) They are not successful (yet) in their business, because if they were, they wouldn’t need to try to cross-recruit me this way. They would instead have interested people coming to them, credit card in hand, ready to sign the dotted line.

2) They are primarily interested in recruiting me to build their business, and don’t care a whole lot about me and what I need – or they would have taken the time to build a relationship with me first to find out how they could best help me, and wouldn’t just shove their opportunity at me like this.

Even if I were looking to switch companies, why would I want to sign up with someone like this? They’re not offering me any value.

Value as in, “Here’s how this is going to benefit YOU…”

It’s always a good idea to try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ask yourself how you would feel if you were being approached in that manner. In fact marketing done RIGHT is all about “getting into the mind” of your prospects.

First you need to find out who, specifically, it is that you want to attract into your business. Next, you need to find out what, specifically, they want…that is what their ‘problem’ is, and how you can solve it for them.

Then offer them the solution.

It’s as simple as that.

No silly gimmicks. No arm-twisting. No my-compay-is better-than-yours type of garbage.

You just give them what they want.

That’s it.

Simple. Fun. Painless…

And ridiculously lucrative.

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Lena Bjorna is an actress-turned professional marketer who used the concept of “GPT” to go from MLM failure to profitable Internet business owner in a matter of months. To learn how GPT can work for you too, go to: MyInsiderReport.com